Anthony Gordon is sick of hearing about the Newcastle United “project” and fed up of hearing rival fans presume performances of the club’s star players are an audition for something bigger.
In-form Newcastle sign off 2024 at an interesting point in the club’s evolution. They sit fifth and are in the last four of the Carabao Cup, but that does not obscure the fact that at times it has been a sobering year of frustration and uncertainty, the vagaries of the Premier League’s financial fair play regulations checking their progress and making it feel as if everyone in the squad has their price.
Indeed, 12 months of transfer conversations around star players like Bruno Guimaraes (linked with Manchester City) and Alexander Isak (a supposed target for Chelsea and Arsenal) unsettled things, as did a summer when Gordon himself was connected to a possible move to Liverpool.
Combined with the exit of minority owner Amanda Staveley, who set the tone from the boardroom, it frayed some of the certainties around the club.
At the end of the year, things finally feel more secure and their run of form is based on solid foundations.
Four successive wins have backed up the club’s belief that Eddie Howe is an elite manager and with the team flying again, Gordon believes now is the time to address the notion that Newcastle aren’t a big enough team to retain their star players or compete for honours.
“Because the club has transitioned so quickly, other fans and other media outlets just pick the players,” he tells The i Paper.
“When we play well it’s like ‘He’s got to move from Newcastle’ but that’s not the reality. We’re fifth in the table, we’re a top club ourselves. It’s a load of rubbish really.”
It is a timely intervention with the January transfer window looming. In the summer the threat of PSR did leave the club pondering some unpalatable sales, casting a long shadow over the start of the season, but lessons have been learned with Gordon insisting the Newcastle’s squad have blocked out any external noise ahead of the January window.
“I think it’s easy (to say things) from the outside to say but we actually live it. We live our lives at the football club,” he says.
“If you start listening to outside news you’re going to get distracted and it will take away from your performances (but) if you see the way we’re performing of late, it’s not the case here.”
The black and white buzz word since the 2023 takeover by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been that Newcastle is a project and the owners are in it for the long-term but, inevitably, that has collided with the reality of top-class players who want to play on the biggest stage.
And Gordon admits he is not fond of the use of the word “project” because it obscures how ambitious the squad is to win trophies now.
“The project doesn’t really mean much to us, we all want to win now,” he says.
“People keep talking about the project from the outside because of how much the club has come on but that doesn’t really mean much to us.
“We’re trying to win now, we’re trying to win Cups now, we’re trying to get back into the Champions League and if we do that then it’ll no longer be called a project will it because it’ll be what we want it to be.”
That attitude extends to his own future, which he is adamant lies at Newcastle despite persistent links with Liverpool. With two goals this month and his influence on games growing, Gordon says he is doing his talking on the pitch.
“My performances are going to say that the best,” he says.
“You see the way I run, the way I work hard for the team, that’s going to say a lot more than me telling you anything. I said a couple of weeks ago, I’ve got a long contract here, I intend to see that out, I’ve got no plans of leaving.
“I’m here to win a trophy, I’ve got a lot of goals ahead of me before I think about anything else.”
Next up for Newcastle on Monday night is a trip to Manchester United, whose form has been wretched under Ruben Amorim of late. Gordon is wary of reading too much into that – “It’s still Old Trafford, it’s not going to be easy” – and feels the rest of the Christmas period will tell us much about the extent of Newcastle’s ambitions this season.
“This period coming up is going to be massive for us because I know these last few games have been really good but it won’t mean much if we don’t carry on, especially away from home which is where we’ve got that challenge in front of us,” he says.
“We’ve got to keep consistency and then with the Cup semi-final afterwards it’s going to be a really interesting run of games.”
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/ns5JZQl
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